The power of memes.
Thanks to Konami, the “Rise of Metal Gear: Revenge” released in 2013, not only the Steam version is locked in Asia, but also has not launched any next-generation remake or high-definition version on the host side – but recently, this work But it has ushered in “turning red”.
According to the statistics of PlayTracker data website, since April 2021, the number of daily online players of “Metal Gear Rising: Revenge” has climbed dozens of times, from two or three hundred to two or three thousand; achievements on the PC and console sides are unlocked The total number of times is also increasing.
In June 2022, the Steam platform gave the game a 25% discount, which is not unusual for a game that has been on sale for 9 years. Surprisingly, the peak online number of Steam games quickly exceeded 6,000, reaching the highest point over the years.
In view of the fact that Konami did not have any official publicity and marketing activities during this period, PlayTracker attributed the rise of the popularity of “Metal Gear Rise: Revenge” to the memes left by the game itself and players who actively passed meme on the Internet.
Image source Steamdb website
The “stalk” mentioned here refers to the cutscenes when the protagonist Raiden and the final BOSS Armstrong fight:
In the plot, Raiden’s katana was easily broken by Armstrong’s hand, and he could only beat Armstrong with his fists at high speed and repeatedly. Thunderbolt’s transformed body can lift a large robot that is taller than a building, and the strength of his fist is naturally not small.
But Armstrong let the rain of fists hit his abs, poised, and didn’t catch his breath. The health value in the lower right corner also shows that Thunderbolt’s boxing technique is “scraping”, and it didn’t hurt his vitals at all.
An angry Raiden shook his hand and scolded, “Why are you still not dead?” But seeing Armstrong tore off his shirt in one fell swoop, he showed Raiden his modified body, and immediately began to fight back, pressing Raiden to the ground and beating him.
Armstrong has implanted a large number of nanomachines in his body, and these nanomachines harden with local physical trauma, making him indestructible and powerful, allowing him to arrogantly throw the following famous line:
“Nanomachines, son.” (Nanomachines, son. )
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For a long time, this famous line and the battle scene between the two were just niche stalks that players in the circle talked about.
When “Metal Gear Rise: Revenge” was first released in 2013, some players tried to make this famous scene a meme. They believe that Armstrong’s nanomachines can not only block physical attacks, but also the ultimate answer to everything in the universe, and any problem can be perfectly solved with nanomachines.
“What’s the ultimate answer to everything in the universe?”, “Nanomachines, boy”
Another group of players will add text to the picture of thunder and lightning hammering Armstrong repeatedly, and the text should describe a scene that is easy for the audience to associate and substitute. In some scenes, you seem to be the invincible Armstrong, no matter what bad things you do, no one can hurt you physically and psychologically. But in other memes, you are nothing more than a thunderbolt of “incompetent fury”, pounding the things in your life that you can never conquer.
The earliest example can be traced back to 2015, when a netizen uploaded a moving picture of the battle scene on the Russian Pikabu forum, with the caption “When you quarreled with your brother”.
In February 2021, a netizen on the meme site iFunny did a similar thing, writing: “Internet trolls try to bully me after I turn off my computer.”
Image source website user @ElliotRogerisAllah
These efforts have not yet brought the “nanomachine” stalk out of the circle. It was not until someone made a video with the music of the meme map and reposted it to a wider audience, such as Twitter and Youtube, that the meme was completely revitalized.
On March 14, YouTube user Rad Dude made a video of iFunny’s meme and added a rock music. This song is from the “Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance” soundtrack, the song is called “It
Has to Be This Way” (this is the only thing), netizens who didn’t know the name of the song before, are more accustomed to calling this song with the first sentence in the lyrics: “Standing Here”
I Realize” (standing here, I just realized).
The video has received over 1.1 million views so far
In the actual game flow, this song is not used for the “gua sha” picture, but is played in the subsequent battle between the two. However, the rock from the original work at least tastes very good, which improves the overall look and feel of the video, not only effectively promotes the spread of the “nanomachine” meme, but also closely links this rock music with the meme.
“To protect my siblings, I tried to fight my drunk father”
It is difficult to explain the charm of this rock music with words alone, and not everyone in the world loves rock and roll. However, a 10-hour “Thunderbolt Beats Armstrong” video, which loops the soundtrack, can also get nearly 1 million views, which is enough to say something.
The video has received over 1.1 million views so far
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Netizens are increasingly realizing that the importance of the soundtrack may be greater than the picture of the fight itself. The two sides of the fight in the picture do not necessarily have to be Raiden and Armstrong. As long as anyone who knows how to play kings and eight fists, no matter whether you are a bear boy or an Ultraman, with the right music, you can still get the “scraping” feeling of thunder and lightning.
Reddit: u/mendrob_08
Station B @TheRevulet
As a result, almighty netizens began to use superb P-pictures and editing techniques to replace Raiden and Armstrong with more familiar celebrities or well-known characters.
Banana Jun VS Dwayne Johnson, Youtube @SomeBuddy Jr.
In a sandbox game or game engine that allows players to import character models and edit actions at will, replicating this famous scene can also achieve a good tribute effect.
APEX Heroes Evil vs. Gibraltar, Reddit: u/nlgnarlyman
At the beginning of 2022, as the “nanomachine” memes and videos from the Internet were gradually transferred to major domestic websites, more and more domestic netizens also got the fun, and a large number of excellent second-generation innovations from UP masters emerged.
“The Horseracing Girl” Donghai Emperor VS Megashira McQueen, Station B @Virtual Kobold
A part of Erchuang is committed to localizing “nanomachines” and “stitching” them with various stalks that have been circulating for a long time in the Chinese Internet context, but it does not seem to be inconsistent.
The melon trader killed Liu Huaqiang, station B @白格青年 Wants to be promising
On March 21, 2022, Youtube user MarlonVids2 uploaded a whole video of Armstrong beating people with blue screen material, which greatly lowered the technical threshold for material processing and editing. Countless domestic and foreign creators were able to participate, further driving the popularity of the “nanomachine” stalk.
Removing the blue screen does not require complicated operations
The presentation form of this stalk has also undergone new evolution and evolution. Just like Rick Eisley’s classic “Never Gonna Give You Up”, Armstrong has also become an accomplice to the vast number of netizens playing pranks in the video, which may appear at any time, anywhere, and be caught off guard. One punch.
Open the package, then be beaten, station B @sistine stomach shaker
While Armstrong is a villain, he occasionally acts as a sidekick to justice.
Armstrong slaps bully Damian, Youtube @morgi memes
But in more cases, Armstrong will appear as “Rebooting Superman”. Once it is detected that you in front of the screen are about to see some pictures that are not suitable for children, he will appear on time and use the heavy punch cast by his nano-machine to completely dispel your sexual thoughts physically.
Youtube @shummm
It’s just that there is an innocuous loophole here. It stands to reason that Armstrong should save those lost souls who were temporarily trapped by desire, but in the end, he was beaten on behalf of others, but it was always the ordinary passing of innocent transforming people, Thunder and Lightning.
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Today, “Nano XX, boy” has become an established carnival code on the Internet. The number of netizens who have tasted the lightning-depleted clip may have long exceeded the actual number of people who passed “Metal Gear Rise: Rise of Metal Gear:
The number of players in Revengeance.
In the comment area below these videos, there are inevitably some players who say a few more words: the anger of thunder and lightning in the original work is definitely not “incompetent rage”. Don’t look at the thunderbolt hitting Armstrong like “scraping”. In fact, in the complete plot animation, Armstrong can’t hit the “alloy jaw” of the thunderbolt.
Station B@stealy’s C Tang_TydDiz
Even though “Strong Arms” is invincible under the blessing of nanomachines, he is the final BOSS of a passionate action game, and should be defeated by Raiden and the players.
Although he did show the guts a final boss should have. Armstrong is a U.S. senator. When he comes on stage wearing a suit and smoking a cigar, players and Raiden will relax their vigilance. After all, in people’s stereotypes, boring politicians who sit firmly in the Senate will only play tricks. What kind of combat effectiveness can they have.
Then “strong arms” will shatter this stereotype. He played football in college, served in the Navy, and used sumo and wrestling in battle, and even without the implanted nanomachines, he probably really could, as he put it, “rip the president into two halves”.
Armstrong’s political views are also broken to the core. Based on the political chaos and economic recession under the worldview of the original “Metal Gear”, he will run for president, and by launching the so-called “war on terror” around the world, create jobs and revive the American economy.
“War on Terror”
This set of “war economy” rhetoric is already disgusting, and was reprimanded by Thunderbolt, “The only thing you care about is enriching your wallet.” But these are just superficial excuses, and Armstrong’s real thoughts are even more disgusting.
Armstrong was a big believer in Social Darwinism. He went to war only to create an absolutely “free” America – everyone has the freedom to kill everyone else, and people fight for their own reasons, not the government’s. Under the brutal competition for survival, only the strong can dominate the social laws, and the weak will either be eliminated, succumb to the lewd power of the strong, or become strong enough to resist the will of others.
“Survival of the fittest”
The English localization team of the game has mixed a lot of “private goods” for this performance. They introduced a lot of swear words and English memes, and modified the translation of the original Japanese lines to fit the American language habits. Coupled with the diligent performance of the voice actors, every line of Armstrong’s lines is like the rock music that runs through the game, full of infinite tension.
Armstrong is a native of Texas, and the word “son” happens to be a slang term commonly used by Texans. “Even if you get all the people who spread the eggs, you can’t get all the eggs,” he said, referring to an 18th-century proverb suggesting that his plans could not reach everyone.
A fanart of Raiden and Armstrong’s collaboration to spread eggs, source Twitter @Subaeye
Armstrong would use Martin Luther King’s famous speech “I have a dream” to whitewash his political views, claiming they could “Make America Great Again” (Make America Great Again).
Great Again). That’s right, this is Trump’s presidential campaign slogan, which he started wrapping himself with in 2011.
In the story of “Metal Gear”, Raiden received military training as a child soldier since he was a child, and became a transformed person when he grew up. After countless battles and killings, he has lived strong to this day. In Armstrong’s eyes, the thunder and lightning that walked all over the mountain of blood and the sea of blood is a model of the transformation from the weak to the absolute strong, so he respects the thunder and lightning, and tries to persuade the thunder from the beginning to the end.
Lyrics to background music, emphasizing Raiden and Armstrong’s “like-mindedness”
In fact, Raiden should have understood Armstrong’s philosophy, and was even willing to shake hands and hug Armstrong: “I was wrong, you are not greedy…”
But Raiden has always been to protect the weak as his creed, and he would never agree with Armstrong’s position: “…you are a fucking lunatic (Bat-shit insane)!”
In the battle that followed, he obtained the samurai sword “Murasame” of another BOSS “Sam torrent”, pierced Armstrong’s chest with it, took it out with his hand, and pinched Armstrong’s nano-heart.
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Metal Gear Rising:
Revenge is a smooth, refreshing and handsome action game.
Although the game was outsourced to Platinum Studio, a full-time action game specialist, Hideo Kojima and his team at the time also participated in the production of the game, which provided evidence for the nasty storyboards in the cutscenes that only Kojima himself could produce. Reasonable explanation.
For example, one of the game’s bosses, “Sam Torrent”, the owner of “Mura Rain”, has a considerable role in the game. When he first appeared, the evil smile that was uglier than crying impressed countless players. By the way, Sam is also a resident “rebooting” messenger on the Internet – even though he was killed by “Mura Rain” in the end, it was still poor Raiden.
Station B @ coarse wool CH
The script of “Metal Gear Rise: Revenge” is entirely in charge of Yu Liyue, who has participated in the creation of many “Metal Gear” plots (he chose to stay at Konami after Kojima left), and the quality is guaranteed.
Of course, this script has the stereotyped content of facialization, and Armstrong is the most facialized villain in the story. However, such a narrative method is less obscure political metaphors than the original biography of “Metal Gear”, and is more straightforward and simple, which is in line with the fast-paced tonality of a hack and slash action game.
This script is also inseparable from the profound lines and ideas of “Metal Gear” that have always been thought-provoking. “The Rise of Metal Gear: Revenge” itself is a work that puts the original meaning of the stalk – the discussion of the word Memes on the table.
“Meme” was originally a term coined by British biologist Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene. Memes are cultural units with self-replicating ability, rooted in human minds, and like human genes, they can spread virally through communication or imitation between humans.
Another boss in the game, “Monsoon”, popularized the idea to Raiden: “Memes, the DNA of the soul. They shape our will. They are culture – they are everything we pass on.” He believes, Humans are nothing but pawns controlled by “memes”, “free will is a myth” and “religion is a joke”.
“Memes, the DNA of the soul”
Are humans pawns controlled by memes? It’s hard to say, but it’s the power of memes that is driving thousands of players back into the game world of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance nine years after the game’s release.
This article is reprinted from: https://www.yystv.cn/p/9334
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